Saturday, March 31, 2012

Tea Time

Lady Carlyle cup & saucer
My favorite teacup, Lady Carlyle!

Oh, I've been so bad lately! I only pop onto Blogger sporadically to catch up with you all, and haven't posted anything for months! Truth is, I've been hanging out a lot more on Facebook and Pinterest lately. I try to keep my "real" identity private, but my Pinterest boards can be accessed through the link on my sidebar (if you want to see all my Victorian pins!).

Overview

Every year, we have an annual tea at Eastlake Victorian! This year, we had it later than most. Our goal is to invite our tea-loving friends over for some lively conversation, delicious teas and scrumptious desserts.

Sweets

This year, I started baking a week early, and either baked or prepared something almost every evening leading up to the event.

Overview

Just before the guests arrived, I set the plates and napkins out on the sideboard.

Sideboard, dessert plates, napkins

I set out the cookies on the center table.

Sweets

I opened up the old 1908 White treadle sewing machine, and used it as a serving table for the cakes!

White Sewing Machine used as table

I made two varieties of cakes this year. One was a cake I've made many times before, a Tomato Cake. It's quite like a fruit cake, and freezes well for leftovers.

Cakes

The other cake I tried was from a new recipe I found on Pinterest, a Lemon Poppyseed Pound Cake. It was the best lemon cake recipe I've ever made! I'll definitely be making that recipe again!

Lemon Poppyseed Pound Cake

I also make 2 different cookie recipes found on Pinterest. The first was a Strawberry Cream Cookie which turned out really well.

Strawberry Cream Cookies

The second were Viennese Fingers, which were a pressed butter cookie dipped in chocolate and sprinkles. Yum!

Viennese Finger Cookies

I also tried these miniature Fruit Tarts from a Pinterest recipe.

Fruit Tartlets

I altered them a bit by filling with a custard I like to make for eclairs, and leaving out the almond meal from the crusts. I wanted the sweets I baked to be nut-free, since a few people who were coming have nut allergies.

Fruit Tartlets

I supplemented the homemade sweets with store-bought orange chocolate Piroulines, which I placed upright in a goblet, some chocolate raspberry candies, and some ginger snaps.

Piroulines

And what's a tea without scones? As usual, I made some scones using the Sticky Fingers brand mixes, and served them with blackberry jam, lemon curd and homemade Devonshire cream. I don't shape them into triangles, but plop them onto the baking sheet like drop biscuits. I always prepare these just before the people begin arriving, so they're very fresh and still a bit warm!

Scones with jam & lemon curd

We had a variety of teas, including decaf and herbal varieties, for everyone to try.

Tea

And as usual, we let everyone chose their cup and saucer!

Tea cups

We set up our 42-cup Westbend pot, which made self-serve extremely easy.

Westbend 42-cup

Our tea was an open house, from noon till 5PM. People came and went, and it seemed everyone had a good time!

Overview

In all, we had 23 friends stop by to enjoy our tea.

Sweets Table

If you'd like to try any of these recipes, here are the links to them on Pinterest:



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19 Comments:

Blogger Rose ~Victorian Rose ~ said...

Oh my gosh, I want to jump right thru my screen and into your home...what DELICIOUS looking treats....oh my gosh...YUMMMMMMMM..
I would camp out the night before on your doorstep woman.
THANK YOU for posting these..glad you had a good time.

Rose

March 31, 2012 at 9:19 PM  
Blogger The Victorian Times said...

thanks for sharing. I'm totally inspired to follow suit with my own tea party.

March 31, 2012 at 9:31 PM  
Blogger Pam of Eastlake Victorian said...

Hi Rose-

Am I making you hungry, lol! It was a lot of fun. :-)

-Pam

April 1, 2012 at 12:11 AM  
Blogger Pam of Eastlake Victorian said...

Hi Rosa-

You really should! It's a nice way to gather friends together. Even though the food and dishes are fancy, the guests dressed casual, were relaxed, could come and go as they pleased, and sit where they wanted!

-Pam

April 1, 2012 at 12:17 AM  
Blogger Judy at GoldCountryCottage said...

Pam: I would love to be a fly on the wall at one of your teas. How fun to get friends together like that. All the goodies looked absolutely amazing and I bet they tasted the same..Happy Sunday..Judy

April 1, 2012 at 1:02 AM  
Blogger Shortbread and Ginger said...

Oh, how beautiful everything looks! The poppyseed cake does look lovely and your collection of china is amazing.
Liz @ Shortbread & Ginger

April 1, 2012 at 3:58 AM  
Blogger Pam of Eastlake Victorian said...

Hi Judy-

Thanks! It really is a fun way to entertain! :-)

-Pam

April 1, 2012 at 12:36 PM  
Blogger Pam of Eastlake Victorian said...

Hi Liz-

Thank you! The lemon poppyseed cake was SO moist and delicious! Do give it a try! As for the china, I really love what I've collected over the years, and I have to keep telling myself not to buy any more, lol! I've really run out of room to store it in this wee house!

-Pam

April 1, 2012 at 12:40 PM  
Blogger Pam Kessler said...

You really are the Pinterest girl now, aren't you! Those tarts looks yummy. Everything looks yummy though. So nice of you to do this for your friends!

April 1, 2012 at 7:53 PM  
Blogger Pam of Eastlake Victorian said...

Hi Pam-

It's a good excuse to pig out on sweets, lol! I'm really loving Pinterest. Getting so many great ideas! You're not doing too shabby there yourself! :-)

-Pam

April 1, 2012 at 10:30 PM  
Blogger Richard Cottrell said...

What a beautiful tea, wish i could have been there. Yummy. Happy Easter. Richard from My Old Historic House.

April 2, 2012 at 12:25 PM  
Blogger Pam of Eastlake Victorian said...

Hi Richard-

I wish you could have been there, too! Have a great Easter yourself. :-)

-Pam

April 2, 2012 at 4:16 PM  
Blogger Sea Witch said...

Oh how I wish I could have come to tea at our fabulous home. Your decorate beautifully and my heart just raced when I saw the lovely Battenbury piece on our table (my favorite lace). Pretty bone china tea cups filled with golden brew and the tea cookies...oh how wonderful. Sea Witch

April 3, 2012 at 6:34 AM  
Blogger Pam of Eastlake Victorian said...

Hi Sea Witch-

Thank you! I wish you coukd have come, too! I agree, I think the Battenburg table topper works very well on this table. :-)

-Pam

April 3, 2012 at 7:11 AM  
Blogger La Petite Gallery said...

Hi Pam,
Wish I could have dropped in. We could have talked for hours.
Tried the Pinterest, they refused me with my Yahoo adress and Gmail.
I don't want any more stuff to remember at my age. It's all I can do to answer my comments now.
The world has become a place of TOOO Much. Even the coffee cream is too many flavors. I like something and stick to it.
yvonne

April 12, 2012 at 5:20 AM  
Blogger Pam of Eastlake Victorian said...

Hi Yvonne,

Wish you could have been here! That would have been fun!

Yeah, there are so many social media options nowadays, it's really hard to keep up with it all. It's also very time consuming, so it's best to pick and choose. You amaze me on how you keep up! :-)

-Pam

April 12, 2012 at 6:58 AM  
Blogger Debbie-Dabble Blog and A Debbie-Dabble Christmas said...

Beautiful!!!
Love the ambiance that your beautiful home creates for the tea, the tea cups, the dishes, everything!!

And the food looks so scrumptious!

Hugs,
Deb

April 21, 2012 at 5:46 AM  
Blogger Pam of Eastlake Victorian said...

Hi Debbie-

Thank you! What a sweet comment! :-)

-Pam

April 21, 2012 at 9:20 AM  
Blogger ladyestelle said...

This comment has been removed by the author.

October 14, 2012 at 10:39 AM  

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